• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.173-185
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• 2019

This article presents a comparative study of the effect of steel layouts on the seismic behavior of transition steel-concrete composite connections, both experimental and analytical investigations of concrete filled steel tube-reinforced concrete (CFST-RC) and steel reinforecd concrete-reinforced concrete (SRC-RC) structures were conducted. The steel-concrete composite connections were subjected to combined constant axial load and lateral cyclic displacements. Tests were carried out on four full-scale connections extracted from a real project engineering with different levels of axial force. The effect of steel layouts on the mechanical behavior of the transition connections was evaluated by failure modes, hysteretic behavior, backbone curves, displacement ductility, energy dissipation capacity and stiffness degradation. Test results showed that different steel layouts led to significantly different failure modes. For CFST-RC transition specimens, the circular cracks of the concrete at the RC column base was followed by steel yielding at the bottom of the CFST column. While uncoordinated deformation could be observed between SRC and RC columns in SRC-RC transition specimens, the crushing and peeling damage of unconfined concrete at the SRC column base was more serious. The existences of I-shape steel and steel tube avoided the pinching phenomenon on the hysteresis curve, which was different from the hysteresis curve of the general reinforced concrete column. The hysteresis loops were spindle-shaped, indicating excellent seismic performance for these transition composite connections. The average values of equivalent viscous damping coefficients of the four specimens are 0.123, 0.186 and 0.304 corresponding to the yielding point, peak point and ultimate point, respectively. Those values demonstrate that the transition steel-concrete composite connections have great energy dissipating capacity. Based on the experimental research, a high-fidelity ABAQUS model was established to further study the influence of concrete strength, steel grade and longitudinal reinforcement ratio on the mechanical behavior of transition composite connections.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.319-332
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• 2020

The impacts of reinforcing concrete matrix with steel fibers, polypropylene fibers and recycled plastic fibers using different volume fractions of 0.15%, 0.5%, 1.5% and 2.5% on the compressive and tensile characteristics are experimentally investigated in the current research. Also, flexural behavior of plain concrete (PC) beams, shear performance of reinforced concrete (RC) beams and compressive characteristics of both PC and RC columns reinforced with recycled plastic fibers were studied. The experimental results showed that the steel fibers improved the splitting tensile strength of concrete higher than both the polypropylene fibers and recycled plastic fibers. The end-hooked steel fibers had a positive effect on the compressive strength of concrete while, the polypropylene fibers, the recycled plastic fibers and the rounded steel fibers had a negative impact. Compressive strength of end-hooked steel fiber specimen with volume fraction of 2.5% exhibited the highest value among all tested samples of 32.48 MPa, 21.83% higher than the control specimen. The ultimate load, stiffness, ductility and failure patterns of PC and RC beams in addition to PC and RC columns strengthened with recycled plastic fibers enhanced remarkably compared to non-strengthened elements. The maximum ultimate load and stiffness of RC column reinforced with recycled plastic fibers with 1.5% volume fraction improved by 21 and 15%, respectively compared to non-reinforced RC column.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.337-355
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• 2016

Steel coupling beam in reinforced concrete (RC) coupled shear wall system is a proper substitute for deep concrete coupling beam. Previous studies have shown that RC coupled walls with steel or concrete coupling beam designed with strength-based design approach, may not guarantee a ductile behavior of a coupled shear wall system. Therefore, seismic performance evaluation of RC coupled shear wall with steel or concrete coupling beam designed based on a strength-based design approach is essential. In this paper first, buildings with 7, 14 and 21 stories containing RC coupled shear wall system with concrete and steel coupling beams were designed with strength-based design approach, then performance level of these buildings were evaluated under two spectrum; Design Basis Earthquake (DBE) and Maximum Considered Earthquake (MCE). The performance level of LS and CP of all buildings were satisfied under DBE and MCE respectively. In spite of the steel coupling beam, concrete coupling beam in RC coupled shear wall acts like a fuse under strong ground motion.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2022

Concrete is a brittle material and weak in tension. Traditionally, web reinforcement in the form of vertical stirrups is used in reinforced concrete (RC) beams to take care of principal stresses that may cause failure when they are subjected to shear stresses. In recent decades, the potential of various types of fibers for improving post-cracking behavior of RC beams and replacing stirrups completely or partially have been studied. It has been shown that the use of steel fibers randomly dispersed and oriented in concrete has a significant potential for enhancing mechanical properties of RC beams. However, the studies on deep steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) beams are limited when compared to those focusing on slender beams. An experimental program consisting of three RC and nine SFRC deep beams without stirrups were conducted in this study. Besides, various models developed for predicting the ultimate shear strength and diagonal cracking strength of SFRC deep beams without stirrups were applied to experimental data obtained from the literature and this study.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.711-725
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the behavior and the strength of SRG (Steel Reinforced Grout) externally strengthened Reinforced Concrete (RC) beams by using a nonlinear numerical analysis. The numerical simulation was carried out by using a three-dimensional (3D) finite element model. An interface element with a suitable damage model was used to model the connection between concrete surface and SRG reinforcing layer. The reliability of the finite element 3D-model was checked using experimental data obtained on a set of three RC beams. The parameters taken into consideration were the external configuration, with or without U-end anchorages, the concrete strength, the amount of internal tensile steel reinforcement. Conclusions were made concerning the strength and the ductility of the strengthened beams by varying the parameters and on the effectiveness of the SRG reinforcing system applied with two types of external strengthening configuration.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.77 no.5
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• pp.637-650
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• 2021

The paper presents an investigation of the widely varying mechanical performance and behaviour of steel and Glass Fibre Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) reinforced concrete beams using non-destructive techniques of Acoustic Emission (AE) and Digital Image Correlation (DIC) under four-point bending. Laboratory experiments are performed on both differently reinforced concrete beams with 0.33%, 0.52% and 1.11% of tension reinforcement against balanced section. The results show that the ultimate load-carrying capacity increases with an increase in tensile reinforcement in both cases. In addition to that, AE waveform parameters of amplitude and number of AE hits successfully correlates and picks up the divergent mechanism of cracking initiation and progression of failure in steel reinforced and GFRP reinforced concrete beams. AE activity is about 20-30% more in GFRP-RC beams as compared to steel-RC beams. It was primarily due to the lower modulus of elasticity of GFRP bars leading to much larger ductility and deflections as compared to steel-RC beams. Furthermore, AE XY event plots and longitudinal strain profiles using DIC gives an online and real-time visual display of progressive AE activity and strains respectively to efficaciously depict the crack evolution and their advancement in steel-RC and GFRP-RC beams which show a close matching with the micro-and macro-cracks visually observed in the actual beams at various stages of loading.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.273-286
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• 2023

Rebar is embedded in concrete to create reinforced concrete (RC). Rebar carries most of the tensile stress and gives compressively loaded concrete fracture resistance. However, embedded steel corrosion is a significant cause of concern for RC composite structures worldwide. It is one of the biggest threats to concrete structures' longevity. Due to environmental factors, concrete decays and reinforced concrete buildings fail. The type and surface arrangement of the rebar, the cement used in the mortar, the dosing frequency of the concrete, its penetrability, gaps and cracks, humidity, and, most importantly, pollutants and aggressive species all affect rebar corrosion. Either carbonation or chlorides typically cause steel corrosion in concrete. Carbonation occurs when carbon dioxide in the atmosphere combines with calcium within the concrete. This indicates that the pH of the medium is falling, and the steel rebar is corroding. When chlorides pass through concrete to steel, corrosion rates skyrocket. Consideration must be given to concrete moisture. Owing to its excellent resistance, dry concrete has a low steel corrosion rate, whereas extremely wet concrete has a low rate owing to delayed O₂ transfer to steel surfaces. This paper examines rebar corrosion causes and mechanisms and describes corrosion evaluation and mitigation methods.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.86 no.3
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• pp.417-430
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• 2023

As the key part in the reinforced concrete column-steel beam (RCS) frame, the beam-column joints are usually subjected the axial force, shear force and bending moment under seismic actions. With the aim to study the seismic behavior of RCS joints with and without RC slab, the quasi-static cyclic tests results, including hysteretic curves, slab crack development, failure mode, strain distributions, etc. were discussed in detail. It is shown that the composite action between steel beam and RC slab can significantly enhance the initial stiffness and loading capacity, but lead to a changing of the failure mode from beam flexural failure to the joint shear failure. Based on the analysis of shear failure mechanism, the calculation formula accounting for the influence of RC slab was proposed to estimate shear strength of RCS joint. In addition, the finite element model (FEM) was developed by ABAQUS and a series of parametric analysis model with RC slab was conducted to investigate the influence of the face plates thickness, slab reinforcement diameter, beam web strength and inner concrete strength on the shear strength of joints. Finally, the proposed formula in this paper is verified by the experiment and FEM parametric analysis results.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.661-677
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• 2016

The quasi static test of the steel reinforced concrete (SRC) bridge piers and rigid frame arch bridge structure with SRC piers was conducted in the laboratory, and the seismic performance of SRC piers was compared with that of reinforced concrete (RC) bridge piers. In the test, the failure process, the failure mechanism, hysteretic curves, skeleton curves, ductility coefficient, stiffness degradation curves and the energy dissipation curves were analyzed. According to the $M-{\Phi}$ relationship of fiber section, the three-wire type theoretical skeleton curve of the lateral force and the pier top displacement was proposed, and the theoretical skeleton curves are well consistent with the experimental curves. Based on the theoretical model, the effects of the concrete strength, axial compression ratio, slenderness ratio, reinforcement ratio, and the stiffness ratio of arch to pier on the skeleton curve were analyzed.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.455-463
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• 2010

This paper describes the experimental study on the mechanical characteristics of a steel plate-reinforced concrete joint. As an alternative reinforced concrete structure, the SC modular construction method is widely used and studied in the field ofindustrial facility field. However, the structure characteristics of RC and SC joint are not yet studied completely. In this paper, the beam-type construction joint of RC and SC walls was made to simulate the application of SC module to the large RC structure. Also, an out-of-plane loading was applied to the test specimen in order to evaluate flexural strength and structural properties of the beam-type RC-SC joint.